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Anthony Cekada is a Traditionalist Catholic priest and author.
Born in 1951, Anthony Cekada studied at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973. In 1975 he entered St. Pius X Seminary in Ecône, Switzerland, completed his studies, and was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1977 for the Society of St. Pius X.
Following his sacerdotal ordination, Father Cekada taught seminarians at St. Joseph's House of Studies, Armada, Michigan, and St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Ridgefield, Connecticut.
From 1979 to 1989 he resided in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, where he did pastoral and administrative work, and edited the traditionalist publication The Roman Catholic. In 1983 Cekada along with eight other priests broke with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and formed the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), headed by then Fr. Clarence Kelly. In 1989 Father Cekada also left the SSPV and he moved to West Chester, where he now assists with pastoral work at St. Gertrude the Great Traditional Roman Catholic Church (sedevacantist). Cekada is a well-known and convinced sedevacantist, believing the popes of the Second Vatican Council to have been illegitimate pontiffs.
He has since devoted a considerable amount of time to research and writing. TAN Books published two of his works criticizing the post-Vatican II liturgical reform. One was a commentary and new translation for The Ottaviani Intervention, a key document in the history of the traditional movement. The other, The Problems with the Prayers of the Modern Mass, discusses the systematic omission of certain doctrines (hell, the soul, miracles, the true Church, etc.) from the 1969 Missal of Paul VI; it has sold nearly 15,000 copies at last count, and has been published in French, Italian, German and Dutch.
Father Cekada has also written two introductory booklets for newcomers to the traditional Mass: Welcome to the Traditional Latin Mass and Traditionalists, Infallibility and the Pope. Both are supposedly quite popular and have achieved wide circulation.
He is a supporter of Natural Family Planning and wrote against the Most Holy Family Monastery on the issue.[1] He also held--as his fellow clergy Bp. Sanborn and Bp. Dolan did-- that withdrawing of the tube of Terri Schiavo was acceptable, because keeping one alive by extraordinary means is not obligatory.[2]